4.3 Nazi policies to reduce unemployment Flashcards
What percentage of the labour force was unemployed when Hitler was chancellor?
25%
What was reducing unemployment important to Hitler?
- politically dangerous: unemployed workers suffered poor living conditions and demanded help so if Hitler could not help, they would turn to Communism
- Nazis believed that unemployed workers were a waste of resources and a burden on society; the Nazis wanted as many people as possible in useful work, in the service of the country
What were the unemployment figures in 1933 compared to 1939?
- 8 million in 1933
0. 3 million in 1939
Explain what the RAD was, why was it good?
Set up in 1933, it was the National Labour Service, which provided work for the unemployed.
It provided workers with work in the public sector, such as building roads, planting trees and draining marshes.
Apart from giving men work, these projects were also good for Germany as a whole as it established a PME in the economy.
how did the RAD reduce unemployment?
At first, the RAD was voluntary. However, from 1935, it was made compulsory for all young men to serve for six months in the RAD and the no. of people involved reached 422,000 in 1935.
Why was RAD unpopular?
- it was organised like an army: people wore uniforms, lived in camps and did military drill and parades as well as work.
- rates of pay were poor and some complained of poor food or working conditions.
- Many saw the RAD as a service for the Nazi Party or military service rather than normal employment.
What’s the deal with the Autobahns
- what was the plan
- when was the first autobahn started
- how many people were employed
Plan to build a 7000 mile network of dual-carriageway roads to improve transport around Germany.
In September 1933, Hitler personally started the construction of the very first autobahn and the first stretch of motorway was opened in May 1935
by 1935, 125,000 men were employed building motorways
by 1938, 3,500km had been finished.
How much money was spent on public works in 1938?
In total, spending on public works grew from 18 billion marks to 38 billion marks by 1938.
Describe how public works provided benefits to the German economy
Public works such as these created many jobs in the construction industry.
Better roads and bridges also meant quicker and cheaper transport for German industry and agriculture. This helped to boost the sale of German goods at home and abroad, creating even more jobs in the rest of the German economy.
Explain two ways in which rearmament reduced unemployment.
how many people in the armed forces by 1939?
- Hitler defied these limits set by the TOV and in 1935 he introduced military conscription. All young German men would have to serve a period in the German armed forces. By 1939, there were 1.36 million men in the armed force which helped to reduce the levels of unemployment;
- bigger armed forces = more arms and equipment.
1933 - the government spent 3.5 billion marks on arms 1939 - 26 billion marks.
This caused a big jump in employment in the arms industry. For example, in 1933, there were only 4000 people employed in the aircraft construction industry but by 1935 this had grown to 72,000.
Describe 4 ways in which the Nazis hid the real level of unemployment (i.e. invisible unemployment)
Women and Jews who may have wanted jobs were forced to give up work these unemployed did not show up on unemployment figures
by 1939, over 1.3 million men were in the armed forces, when in normal peace-time most of these men would need jobs
people who were employed part-time were classed as being fully employe - this was classed as statistical manipulation.
men who ould have been unemployed were found jobs in the labour service or public workers
What is the overall positive verdict on unemployment in Nazi Germany
?
(how well did Germany do compared to Britain?)
- reducing unemployment helped to prevent any build-up of public resentment towards the Nazis
- Britain, in comparison, unemployment only fell by 1 million in the 1930s, whiles Nazis unemployment rates fell by 4.5
What is the overall negative verdict on unemployment in Nazi Germany
What were some limitations?
- unemployment was falling everywhere in the 1930s as countries recovered from the Great Depression
- some jobs were created by the Nazis, such as Nazi security forces, were not “real jobs” - created by the economy
- some were supported by very high government spending which could not have been maintained in the long run - such as the huge programme of public works in the 1930s
- some unemployed people, like Jews, were counted in official figures
When was the German labour front (DAF) established?
1933
What did the DAF do
protected the rights of workers and they set out :
- the rights of workers in the workplace
- maximum length of the working week
- minimum pay levels
all workers needed to join
However, in some ways, German workers were worse off under the DAF as:
